There would be no second-half meltdown this time.

Following a loss where they blew a 15-point lead to Creighton, Megan Rogowski scored a career-high 30 points and Jasmine Penny added 23 points as DePaul women’s basketball bounced back with a 91-71 win over Providence.

Rogowski had a record-setting day, tying the record for most three-pointers in a game. Her eight three pointers were the most since Lenae Williams did it vs. Oregon in 1999.

“We knew we had to come back off of (Creighton) and get back on track,” Rogowski said. “I give credit to my teammates for finding me…coach always says “You have the greenest green light in America” so you just got to keep shooting whether you’re making or missing.”

Her 30 points were the most by a Blue Demon this year and DePaul took control of the game early.   In the first half, DePaul went on a 20-6 run to put them ahead 52-36 at halftime.
The Blue Demons would continue their dominance in the second half. Providence would get within eight with eight minutes left, but the Blue Demons answered with a 17-3 run.

Head coach Doug Bruno said Providence pulling DePaul’s lead to 72-64 showed how competitive the Big East is.

“Any team can beat any other team in this league on any night,” Bruno said. “I thought our players did a nice job down the stretch getting the simple aspects cleaned up and executed. I was really impressed with the intelligence we played towards the end of the game.” 

Penny’s 23-point game was her fourth game in a row with 20 plus points.  She also had seven rebounds and three assists.

“I’m just taking the game as it comes to me,” Penny said. “Today there was able a couple of times where I was getting double teamed so I would kick it out to Rogo who would be open.”

Brittany Hrynko led DePaul with nine assists. The Blue Demons had 24 assists on 33 baskets.

DePaul shot 50 percent (33-66) while holding Providence to 40 percent (27-68). The Blue Demons also forced 20 turnovers.

Providence’s Alex Harris led her team with 21 points.

Four Blue Demons finished in double-digits. Besides Rogowski and Penny, Chanise Jenkins had 17 points and Jessica January scored ten.

DePaul next plays St. John’s on Saturday. St. John’s is coming off a 20-point win over Creighton.

“I think there’s a lot of room for growth still,” Bruno said. “There’s a lot of good teams in (the Big East) and it’s going to be a league where they’re going to pound on each other.  It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. We can only worry about win number three on Saturday and what we have in-front of us.”

Game notes:

–          Megan Podkowa missed the game with an upper-body injury. Bruno described it as a “freak injury” in practice. Kelsey Smith started in her place.

–          Kelsey Reynolds missed the game as well due to injury.